Latvian criminals let into Britain were thugs in home country

Two Latvians who broke into an elderly widow's home and pushed her down the stairs were let into Britain despite being well-known criminals in their home country.

Dorothy Hodgson, 74, was lucky to survive the violent late-night burglary, and despite surgery faces being scarred for life as a result of appalling injuries to her face.

After her attackers were captured by police, officers discovered that one had served a five-year prison sentence for robbery in Latvia while his accomplice is wanted for assault by the authorities there.

But because Latvia is a member of the EU, they were free to settle and work in Britain without having their criminal records scrutinised.

To add insult to injury, assault charges against the pair have now been dropped after a judge said it couldn't be established which of them pushed Mrs Hodgson - even though she is adamant she knows and would have been prepared to testify in court.

Yesterday she and her family were joined by their local MP in demanding tougher measures against foreign criminals trying to move to Britain.

Mrs Hodgson was preparing to go to bed at her home in Brierfield, Lancashire on July 23 last year when she came across two men in her bedroom.

"I slammed the bedroom door to try to trap them but one of them forced his way out and pushed me down the stairs," she said yesterday.

Despite a gashed face she picked up her phone to dial 999, but the man ripped the receiver out of her hand and the pair fled. The blood-covered grandmother had crawl to a neighbour's house and call for help.

At the time a detective on the case said: "Had the victim been frail and unable to raise the alarm, we may have been dealing with a murder investigation."

Police later arrested Vjaceslavs Skerskans, 29, and Ramunas Budvyatis, 30, and found they were Latvians living in nearby Nelson where they worked at meat factories.

They were charged with burglary and assault causing grievous bodily harm, but last week when they appeared at Burnley Crown Court the latter charge was dropped because prosecutors couldn't prove which of them had pushed her.

"I would have stood up in court and said that, but now I won't have the chance. I feel very let down.

"And to find out they were known criminals when they came to Britain and yet we can do nothing about it is appalling."

Mrs Hodgson, a retired nurse whose storekeeper husband Laurence died 12 years ago, has now moved into sheltered accommodation because her family were worried about her living alone.

The mother-of-two needed 30 stitches, and more than six months on can barely open her mouth, although she has been able to resume work as a volunteer with the St John Ambulance at football matches.

Her daughter, nurse Kathryn Nixon, 49, added: "Why can't we be like America where people can be kept out of the country if they have criminal records?

"It feels as if their rights are more important than people like my mum's. The detective told me we don't know who we're letting in. The law's a joke."

Since Latvia joined the EU in 2004, its citizens have been free to settle and work in Britain.

Criminal convictions would not normally bar them from entry although these are meant to be kept on file, yet even here ministers have admitted that details of foreign criminals living in Britain are far from comprehensive.

The case, which heaps more pressure on the Home Office, has echoes of the killing of schoolgirl Jeshma Raithatha by Viktors Dembovskis in 2005.

He had a string of rape convictions in his native Latvia but no checks were made on his background when he moved to Britain.

Last night Mrs Hodgson's MP, Labour's Gordon Prentice, said: "We do not want these types of people here.

"Surely some checks on their background could have been made when they entered this country. Immigration should have stopped them."

He also criticised the courts for failing to pursue the assault charge. "One or the other pushed her down the stairs. I do not really understand this. I don't know why the CPS did not press that point."

He called for them to be deported once they had served their sentences, although EU rules may make that impossible.

A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service said it had tried unsuccessfully to argue in court that both men could be charged with the assault on the basis that it had been a joint enterprise.

Both men admitted burglary and were remanded in custody to be sentenced next month.

The violence they used will be cited as an "aggravating factor" in a bid to persuade the judge to hand down lengthy sentences - the maximum jail term for burglary is 14 years.